One method of manufacturing a custom set of dentures includes multiple visits between a patient and a dentist. The dentist typically sends the dentures multiple times at various stages in the manufacturing process to a dental laboratory for a technician to work on the dentures. For example, a dentist may take an impression of gums of a patient with a stock tray and send the impression to a technician for fabrication of custom trays from the impressions. Next, the dentist would receive the custom trays from the dental laboratory and take another impression of the arch or gums and send this impression to the dental laboratory. The technician at the laboratory constructs a base plate with bite rims and sends it back to the dentist for the dentist to determine the upper and lower bite relation. Then the dentist sends the base plate and bite rim back to the dental laboratory to set prosthetic teeth in wax. Typically after the dentist has fitted the dentures in the patient's mouth to check the bite and prosthetic teeth arrangement, the dentist would again send the dentures to a dental laboratory to process and finish. After processing and finishing the dentures, the dentures are sent back to the dentist for delivery to the patient. The time required for multiple visits between the patient and dentist and the time for labor on the custom dentures at the dental laboratory can be substantial and costly. Additionally, custom dentures can be costly since each set of dentures is custom made for a particular patient using that patient's arch to form the impressions and trays.
The present invention provides improvements for dentures and methods of manufacturing dentures.